


Threadbare

by Ciwu



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 07:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10715229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ciwu/pseuds/Ciwu
Summary: Honestly, you'd think Vex didn't have any clothes of her own at the rate she steals them from Percy.





	Threadbare

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cinderfell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderfell/gifts).



> Cinderfell and I did a WIP swap! Here's my end of the bargain.

It starts like this: Percy is from the far north and unless it’s snowing, he’s never really cold. And even when it is snowing, Percy’s content with a light jacket or a hoodie. It just doesn’t get that cold in Emon. By contrast, Vex grew up way down south - down in Syngorn and even further south in Byroden before that. Vex starts putting long sleeves on as soon as the thermostat in the apartment dips below 70, which it frequently does because Percy would rather die than live in an apartment that’s consistently set to _75 degrees Fahrenheit, Vex, this is ridiculous_.

But long before they live together and wage war over control of the thermostat, they are college friends who live in a city that sees, at worst, light snowfall during the winter. Percy’s fine with this. Vex is not.

It’s just after nightfall and they’re standing outside of a movie theater after watching what was, to be honest, one of the worst movies Percy has ever seen in his life. Some sort of holiday horror movie or some garbage like that; Percy lost track of the plot early on and decided his time would be better spent taking a nap but unfortunately the movie involved too much screaming. Vax and Keyleth have wandered off to retrieve the car and possibly either make out or scold Vax about his shitty choice in movies.

Vex and Percy have been left waiting on the steps and Percy is staring down at his phone, wondering if he even has the words necessary to tell Cassandra just how bad the movie was in a text when he realizes that he can hear a strange noise. He glances over and sees Vex with her arms wrapped around herself, teeth chattering loudly. She’s staring off into the parking lot with a grim look on her face like she knows for certain that Vax and Keyleth haven’t brought the car around as quickly as they could.

“Are you cold?” He asks, realizing as soon as the words are out of his mouth that it was an incredibly stupid question.

Vex turns to stare at him and wow, if they could just harness the heat of that glare, Vex would never be cold again. “I hate you, and every other northerner,” she hisses through her chattering teeth. She’s wearing a long sleeved shirt and jeans, which would have been plenty for Percy but clearly isn’t enough for her. If it were anyone else, Percy would have teased them until the car came around (the heater will be on since Vax is no better about the cold than his twin) but Vex’s lips are just slightly blue.

Rather than examine too closely why he’s staring at her lips, Percy reaches into his bag for the folded up hoodie he had intended to use as a pillow during the movie and hands it over. She shivers as she pulls it on, balling up the extra fabric in the sleeves in her hands as she adjusts it. It’s much too large for her, but she immediately looks much happier wearing it. “Oh thank gods. Alright, I changed my mind.”

“So you don’t hate me and every other northerner?” he asks in amusement.

“Well, I don’t hate _you_.”

A few minutes later, Vax and Keyleth finally arrive with the car and Vex and Percy slide into the back seat. The heater is on full blast and it’s toasty warm inside the car (moreso than Percy would prefer actually), which means Vax and Keyleth must have been sitting in it for awhile. Vex seems to realize this and immediately lays into her brother about leaving them on the sidewalk so he could mack on his girlfriend, but she doesn’t relinquish Percy’s hoodie and it doesn’t occur to him to ask for it back.

He doesn’t see her until two days later. Between work and class, he barely finds time to eat and sleep, much less socialize. But he walks into the cafe where his friends are all meeting two days after the movie and there she is, curled up in the corner of their booth and wearing his hoodie. She makes eye-contact with him first and the grin that spreads across her face is downright devilish.

Keyleth notices Vex’s expression first, no doubt because she’s seated directly across from the grinning woman, and turns around to see Percy working his way through the cafe and up to the table. Her face lights up at the sight of him. “Hey, Percy!”

Keyleth shifts over closer to Pike so Percy can squeeze in, the rest of the group echoing Keyleth’s greeting as he sits down. All except for Vex, who just grins back at him. Very slowly, he says, “You’re wearing my hoodie.”

“Yes,” she replies simply. She brings her cup of coffee to her lips, still grinning as her mouth disappears behind the mug and continuing as she sets the cup down.

“Ooh, drama!” Scanlan laughs as he reaches over and nabs a piece of bacon off of Grog’s overflowing plate.

“I wouldn’t call it drama as much as theft,” Percy says as Pike passes him the salt and pepper for his eggs.

“Theft! How dare you, sir,” Vex says with mock offense. “I seem to recall you giving this to me.”

“Your memory is faulty then, I loaned it to you because you were cold.”

“Well I’m _still_ cold, so I’m still wearing it.”

It’s a perfectly lovely 60 degrees out but it’s Vex so that probably isn’t even a lie.

Percy swallows a mouthful of scrambled eggs and says, “You have your own jackets and hoodies.  I’ve seen you wearing them.”

“Yours is warmer.” Vex proves this by snuggling down into it right in front of him with a smug look on her face because she knows perfectly well that Percy won’t demand she give the hoodie back when she really is cold.

Percy would roll his eyes if she didn’t look incredibly cute burrowed into his hoodie like she’s in the middle of a blizzard. “Well once you aren’t cold, you might consider returning it.”

“I might,” she agrees.

He can already tell he’s never getting that hoodie back.

~

The first time they have sex is - well, Percy would be lying if he said the word “magical” hadn’t crossed his mind last night, but he _was_ pretty drunk. Objectively speaking, they were both drunk enough that it probably wasn’t the best sex either of them had ever had, but Percy wakes up to Vex kissing him on the cheek before struggling out of his arms, nearly falling off the bed in pursuit of getting to the bathroom, and he can’t help but smile at her muttered cursing so he figures it went pretty well overall.

Percy keeps half an ear out in case she starts throwing up but he doesn’t hear any retching, just the faint sounds of a pill bottle being shaken open. Percy figures her hangover isn’t too bad (and neither is his, really) so he tunes the sound out and falls into a light doze, sprawling out as much as he can in Vex’s smaller bed.

He wakes up an indeterminate amount of time later to a Newfoundland dog licking his face and the smell of coffee permeating the apartment. One of these things is more welcome than the other but Trinket means well so Percy just groans and forces himself to get up. Percy rifles through the pile of mixed clothes on the floor and comes up with nearly all of his clothing.

Where the hell are his boxers?

Going commando in his jeans isn’t Percy’s idea of a great time but it’s not like he has a spare pair of underwear lying around Vex’s apartment. And he can’t borrow a pair of Vex’s underwear for several reasons, the most salient one being that Vex is a foot shorter than him and half as broad.

Percy wanders out into the living room, chasing the smell of coffee. He can hear Vex pottering around in the kitchen so he calls out, “Darling, I think your dog may have stolen something from me.”

“I promise I didn’t tell him to,” Vex calls back, sounding amused. “What did you lose?”

Percy means to respond, he really does, but the apartment isn’t very big and the mystery of the missing underwear is solved as soon as he steps into the kitchen.

Vex is wearing his boxers and fuck all else.

Percy is speechless.

The look Vex gives him is entirely knowing and completely at odds with the innocent tone of her voice when she says, “Those pants don’t look very comfortable, dear. And not really appropriate morning wear either.”

“They’re getting less comfortable by the second,” Percy agrees in a strangled voice. “But I didn’t have many options.”

“That’s right, I believe you were in the middle of accusing my dog of stealing something from you.”

Percy crosses the kitchen in two long strides and crowds Vex against the counter, hands splayed across her hips where his boxers are riding low. “I think I’ve got a new suspect in mind.”

Vex tilts her head up with a smile and from this distance, Percy can smell the coffee on her breath. “Found what you were looking for, did you?”

Percy smirks, then drops his hands to the back of her thighs and lifts her onto the counter in one smooth motion, relishing her squeak of surprise. “You know, I believe I did,” he says, then sets about retrieving his property with his teeth.

~

Six months later in Percy’s own apartment, he curls his arm around her waist and whines as she tries to get up, earning a soft chuckle from her. “How undignified, Percival.”

“Fuck dignity,” he mumbles into the pillow. She laughs again, the vibrations tickling the arm he has around her. He gives a little tug and she falls back against the bed with a little ‘oof.’ She allows him to hold her for a few moments longer before she kisses his shoulder and starts trying to squirm out of his arms again, so he finally relinquishes his hold on her.

He turns over, propping himself up on his elbow as he watches her search the room for her clothes. They lay with his own, a trail from the doorway to the bed. The way she hops from foot to foot as she tries to pull on her jeans? He finds that incredibly endearing. The way she sticks her tongue out at him when she realizes he’s watching her? Adorable.

Vex stops suddenly, turning to look at him with his rumpled blue shirt from the night before held in front of her. “Percy.”

“Yes?” He raises an eyebrow at her. Without another word, she shrugs it on, buttoning it up to the top. It’s far too big for her, the sleeves falling far beyond her hands. That doesn’t stop the grin that spreads across her face as she looks down at it. He raises himself up a bit more, leaning back against the headboard. “Are you really taking my shirt, too?”

“Of course.”

“I like that shirt,” he says.

“But look how cute I am in it!” She does a little spin for him, the fabric swaying as she goes. Well. She isn’t wrong. After a long moment he sighs, shaking his head as a small smile creeps up on him. She hums at his apparent approval and walks over to his dresser, pulling open the first drawer and then the second before plucking a black button up out and eyes it up and down. Seemingly satisfied, she balls it up and throws it at his head. Not expecting it, he’s hit in the face by the fabric. He glances from the offending shirt to his grinning girlfriend, unable to keep his own face from mirroring her’s. With a laugh, she says, “Look! Now we both have shirts!”

He pulls the shirt on slowly, too slowly for her liking. She tosses a pair of boxers at him, then sweatpants. That earns her a middle finger, and _that_ in turn earns him the sweetest laugh he’s ever heard. Fully dressed, he pulls himself out of bed and wanders over to where she leans against his dresser, arms crossed across her chest. He reaches out for her, cupping her face in his hands as he leans down to kiss her. He can feel her grin through the kiss, Vex’s arms unfolding so she can press her hands against his chest. After a moment she relaxes, melting into his arms as they drift down around her.

When she finally pulls away from him with a happy sigh, he says, more to himself than her, “I feel it’s starting to become pointless for us to have separate dressers.”

What Percy means of course is that Vex steals his clothes so often that they effectively have the same wardrobe. Most days it seems like half the clothes in her closet were originally his. But when Vex sucks in a sharp breath and goes very still against him, it occurs to him that his comment could easily be taken another way.

He opens his mouth to clarify, then closes it. For some reason, the idea of taking it back sends pangs through his chest. It wasn’t what he meant, but now that it’s out there, oh _gods_ does he want it. Waking up in bed with Vex every day instead of just most days? Lounging on the couch with his work laptop and pretending he’s not watching bad daytime TV with her? Cooking dinner while Vex takes Trinket for his evening walks? Sharing a closet space and knowing that any divide between their clothing was entirely useless?

Oh yes, Percy would love to have that. Though whether or not Vex would like that as well is a key question.

“Are you asking me to move in with you?” Vex asks quietly, nervously.

“Apparently I am, yes,” Percy says carefully.

“Apparently?”

“There was not a lot of thought put into that statement,” he admits. “Which doesn’t mean the offer and request isn’t genuine.”

The wobbly smile that spreads across Vex’s face is beautiful and Percy wants to spend the rest of his life looking at it, which is a thought so overwhelming that he decides to put it away for later. Vex laughs softly and says, “Well then, I look forward to the opportunity to wear nothing but your shirts around the house all day.”

“You already do that -,” Percy starts to point out before he is cut off by Vex’s mouth on his and he rapidly forgets any thoughts he may have regarding Vex wearing any clothing at all, aside from his professional opinion that she shouldn’t.


End file.
